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ca Neue,
On 6/27/2016 12:03 PM, Bev Wigney wrote:
* Species at Risk recovery plans should require provisions for nesting
by Cliff & Barn Swallows and Phoebes under every bridge over a stream or
lake. The designs of bridges have taken exactly the opposite direction
in recent decades, with sloped concrete beams that prevent Birds from
nesting.
fred.
==================================================
> Just an observation on Barn Swallows.
>
> When Don and I had our farm in eastern Ontario, there were always a
> number of Barn Swallows that nested in the rafters of our barn. They
> successfully raised many young for the first 20 years we were there.
> We had no loft, but plenty of ventilation in the stable as we left
> large doors open at the east and west ends of the barn, so always a
> good breeze blowing through. The swallows built nests attached to the
> rafters. The adults would tear through the barn, often giving us a tip
> of the wing on the head or hat as they zoomed past while we were doing
> the milking (we kept a large herd of dairy goats at that time). Then,
> we started having hotter and more humid summers. We noticed this
> ouselves, not so much because we watched the thermometer, but because
> Don and I were both very avid hikers and paddlers and we started to
> find that we could barely stand being out in the sun on hot summer
> days -- so we would only paddle on creeks overarched by trees. We
> picked out hikes to avoid open trails over the rock expanses on the
> Shield. Anyhow, at this time, we noticed a very sad thing happening
> in the barn. We began to find young birds out of their nests and down
> dead or dying on the stable floor. We had noticed that, even before
> they were of an age ready to fly, they would be perching on the edge
> of the nests and we could see they were distressed from the heat. We
> couldn't think of anything to do about the situation as we had plenty
> of vents at ceiling level as well as the aforementioned barn doors
> that were left wide open through summer. After a couple of summers of
> almost total losses of nestlings, the swallows stopped nesting in the
> barn and never returned. I set this time as probably being around the
> year 2000 or possibly a little before as it was probably 8 to 10
> years before I sold the farm after Don died. I am wondering if the
> swallows find many stables too hot for nesting now -- especially those
> stables that don't have lofts with full hay mows. That would be a
> growing trend, I think, as most people now make round bales and don't
> put so much hay up in their mows. Those barns are probably not so
> heat-insulated as they once were. Stables such as ours, may have been
> fine before, but with what seem to be increasingly hot summers, maybe
> the heat levels are getting to the point that young birds expire.
> Anyhow, just a first-hand observation of a noticeable decline and then
> disappearance on my own farm back in eastern Ontario.
>
> Bev Wigney
> Round Hills, NS
>
> On 6/27/16, Laviolette, Lance <lance.laviolette@lmco.com> wrote:
>> Hi Paul,
>>
>> Well this birder agrees with you. I’ve seen the demise of small farm cattle
>> in eastern Ontario as well with pastures and hay fields becoming huge swaths
>> of corn and soya crops as a result. Anyone who thinks that this is a good
>> thing should compare the diversity of living things in a soya field to that
>> of a pasture.
>>
>> Gone are the days in this neck of the woods of hundreds of swallows along
>> the power lines as they were 20+ years ago.
>>
>> All the best,
>>
>> Lance
>>
>> Lance Laviolette
>> Glen Robertson, Ontario
>>
>>
>
--
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Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
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on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
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